Guests at a dinner party held by one of Britain’s most senior admirals needed hospital treatment after a fondue set exploded and showered them in molten cheese.

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Julian Oswald, a former aide to the Queen, was hosting a family dinner on Thursday night when the gas canister fuelling the fondue set blew up.

Seven guests, aged 15 to 44, were taken to hospital with burns to their faces, hands and arms. Others were treated by ambulance crews at Sir Julian’s house in the village of Shedfield, near Fareham, Hampshire.

A girl aged 15 and two women, both aged in their forties, were described as suffering “very serious burns”. Six of the guests were discharged from hospital yesterday while a seventh, understood to be the 15-year-old girl, remained in hospital overnight.

Several members of his family were reportedly at the house yesterday as firefighters and trading standards officers began an investigation into the cause of the explosion.

Laura Small, the spokeswoman for Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “The people were sat around the dinner table where the fondue set was placed and were using it at the time.”

Ms Small said that the gas cylinder was attached to the fondue set and sitting on the table when it exploded. “All the people suffered burns to their faces and hands and when fire crews arrived there was no action to be taken other than to administer first aid until ambulance crews arrived,” she said.

“It’s difficult for us to say at this stage if it was a fault with the fondue set but we are looking into it.”

The fondue set was heated by a 220g butane gas cylinder. Most sets are powered by gas, candles, fuel gel packs or electricity and are used to melt cheese or chocolate or to cook chunks of meat in oil.

Sir Julian, 74, and his wife, Veronica, refused to discuss the incident yesterday. The couple, who have five children, are believed to have moved to the area after Sir Julian retired from the Royal Navy in 1993.

Sir Julian, who was born in Selkirk, in Scotland, joined the Navy in 1947 and took his first command in 1965. He served as First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff between 1989 and 1993, during which time he oversaw the introduction of the first women to serve at sea. He was Aide-de-Camp to the Queen from 1989 to 1993 and remains one of six Admirals of the Fleet, headed by the Duke of Edinburgh.

Since retiring from the Navy Sir Julian, who is a member of Mensa, has become a director of a number of companies and trustee of bodies including the Cutty Sark Trust and the National Maritime Museum. In 1997 he took out a newspaper advertisement appealing for the return of a ceremonial sword that he had left on a train journey between Portsmouth and London. He offered a substantial reward for the sword, which had been in the Oswald family for 60 years.

Paul Coates, a fire station manager, said: “We are liaising with Hampshire County Council trading standards to investigate what happened to cause the explosion.

“We would remind people using gas-powered items or candles to take extra care and to follow the manufacturer’s instructions.”

The Department of Health’s Hospital Episode Statistics does not have any record of admissions to hospitals for fondue-related injuries during 2006-07. The last major incident was in January 1996 when Stuart Davidson, an accountant from Edinburgh, spent three days in intensive care with burns after he was sprayed with oil from an exploding fondue set in a ski resort in France.

In 1992 the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association reported a five-year study into injuries caused by fondue sets in Quebec. It said that 17 people had been injured, 12 of whom required skin grafts. The most common cause of accidents was spilling of the contents of the pot and explosions of the fondue fuel when added to the burner during cooking.

1956: Fondue cooking became fashionable in this year after Konrad Egli of New York’s Chalet Swiss restaurant introduced Fondue Bourguignonne

Source: www.fonduefusion.com

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